REVIEWS

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WHITING AWARD CITATION

“The selection committee was “fairly dazzled” by Mr. Heathcock’s story collection. The plots have a demonic ferocity that frequently erupts into violence of the morally consequential rather than gratuitous sort, but the stories also are full of visionary mystery, or perhaps of mysterious visions, or of both, so that what is remembered are the images–of a strange white-haired figure wandering through fields, of women dressed like demons picnicking in a maze plowed through a field of corn, of teenagers wreaking nocturnal mayhem on a quiet town by sending bowling balls careening through the streets. The characters, too, are indelible. One feels throughout the welcome influence of Mr. Heathcock’s progenitors–Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, Faulkner– but the work feels mature and wholly his own.”

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NEW YORK TIMES

“…Frankly, there is little to fault in any of the eight stories that make up this collection. Undoubtedly, there is much grit and violence in this world, but there is also an abundance of tenderness and compassion. Heathcock displays a generosity of spirit that only those writers who love their characters can summon, and “Volt” is galvanizing proof of his talent.”

GQ

OXFORD AMERICAN

“In Volt, the characters in these stories collide with forces that are beyond their control. These stories remind us that we are defined by how we respond to hard situations in life, not easy ones. Our favorite line: “God gets around to all of us. Every last one of us. Who the hell knows what to do about it.””

NPR

“…There’s nothing easy about trying to distill tragedy and pain into the space of one short story. In Volt, Heathcock does it eight times, with a remarkable sense of compassion, and a deeply felt understanding of the mechanics of mourning…”

LIBRARY JOURNAL

“This debut collection is a high-voltage reading experience one won’t soon forget… Heathcock is a writer to watch; each of these subtle stories will thrill readers with an element of surprise that will make them want to go back and see how it happened and what they missed along the way.”

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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Heathcock’s impressive debut collection pursues modern American prairie characters through some serious Old Testament muck… Misery is in plentiful supply throughout these dark, thickly atmospheric tales of spiritual desolation and savagery. Fans of William Gay and Daniel Woodrell will savor these stories where sin and suffering shroud the hope of redemption.”

BARNESANDNOBLE.COM

“If the Coen Brothers filmed Flannery O’Connor’s stories using the ghost of Grant Wood as set and costume designer, the resulting film might resemble the tales in this career-launching collection from Alan Heathcock, a writer distinguished by his poetic treatment of the quotidian violence that underpins too much of American life…”

LITERARY CHICAGO

“…Heathcock wastes no time mincing words or meanings; his style is beautifully unfettered, quintessentially American. VOLT is a collection woven of nature’s elements, human nuance, and heartrending honesty. VOLT sets a new standard to which all other fiction collections must now measure themselves…”

THE MOOKSE AND THE GRIPES

“…The sensitivity to spiritual pain and healing reminded me plenty of Flannery O’Connor. The language took me to Faulkner and McCarthy. That the stories all take place in one fictional town, Krafton, reminded me of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. That it is a debut collection I think should find its way into the American canon…”

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PROPELLER MAGAZINE

“There is nothing flimsy about this work—it is gleaming, craft-wise, but it also has that invisible something.Volt is effectual in that special way I believe all serious readers of fiction yearn for with each unopened book, each un-cracked spine—to be swept away and changed, to be disturbed for days, even weeks after, to be astounded and confronted with beauty and moral question.”

THE KENYON REVIEW

“…We are living in a world where writers, in the midst of the storm (dwindling readers, the looming paperless world), must climb the mast and scream: Is this all you’ve got, storm? …Heathcock’s Volt assure readers there are still storm-screamers out there, demanding to be heard above the squall.”

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WRITERS HUB

CAPE ANN BEACON

“…VOLT is intriguing, too, for the quality of its craft. Who is this talented writer, with his gift for storytelling? Who is the man wearing a fedora in his photograph who pulls from us the surprise of compassion for those who sin and suffer? Who makes these standout spare and gorgeous sentences?…”

BARN OWL REVIEW

“VOLT is an incredible work of American fiction, and it’s distinctly American…in Heathcock’s unstoppable, measured, hard-fought voice…”

HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

“A good story has the power to divert us from our struggles as well as to help us understand them. This is one reason people turn to fiction, and it explains why Alan Heathcock’s debut short-story collection, Volt, is an ideal book for our times…”

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DAILY KOS

“These novels and stories are set throughout the country in the forgotten spots that don’t even figure in fly-over rhetoric. Lives are hardscrabble. Not every person is decent. But all of them deserve attention as much as Willie Loman. And sometimes, just sometimes, the sun shines for a few moments into someone’s life and they find the strength to carry on.”

TOTTENVILLE REVIEW

CONTRARY MAGAZINE

“Eight stories are linked by place and provocation, and something else, too: the prose. Minimalism sets the tone for violent acts, while lyricism implies softness in the underlying human vulnerability responsible for creating them. The unrelenting revelation of character dispels all risk of melodrama.”

EDMONTON JOURNAL

“…Volt is an extremely strong collection, by any metric. Most of these stories were previously published in literary journals, and their careful, finely chiselled sensibility shines through on every page…”

THE SHORT REVIEW

“It’s impossible not to reach into the pun drawer when reviewing Volt, Alan Heathcock’s new collection of short fiction from Graywolf Press. I found myself unable to resist writing that his prose positively crackles with energy, or that a current of literary brilliance flows through the stories, or that there is a power here, an electricity, which almost bursts off the page…”

BOOKS, PERSONALLY

“VOLT is a superbly written collection of tense, suspenseful and very moving stories that lay bare violence, grief, compassion, and despair in the rural, fictional town of Krafton. Heathcock’s writing is spare and precise, cutting quickly and exactly to expose the deepest emotions lying beneath the surface…”

CONFLUENCE JOURNAL

“Heathcock’s deftness in managing such complicated themes with understatement and his ability to rescue lives that we might dismiss is reminiscent…to the early novels of Cormac McCarthy and to Andre Dubus (both II and III).”

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KGB BAR LIT MAGAZINE

“…sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph, their stories are told beautifully, with many striking turns of phrase. Heathcock is a powerful writer, and infuses each of the eight stories with the sense that catastrophe is inevitable, and personal…”

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

“Alan Heathcock never pinpoints a location for Krafton, the rural setting for his accomplished debut, VOLT. Still, it is easy to imagine these eight linked stories unfolding in a township tucked along Ohio 60 next to Killbuck or Monroe…”

CORDUROY BOOKS

SHELF AWARENESS

“…Readers who admire the kind of vivid, distinctive short fiction displayed in Richard Ford’s Rock Springsor David Means’s Assorted Fire Events will be excited to discover a familiar but wholly original new voice in Alan Heathcock.”

FICTION WRITERS REVIEW

“…In a manner that is equal parts Picasso and Tarantino, Heathcock uses the fragmented nature of the collection to fracture the reader’s lens. He lashes his Kraftonians together into a kind of multi-limbed, multi-brained protagonist. We walk a mile in the shoes of victims, of perpetrators, and of bystanders. As with Dubliners or Jesus’ Son, to read these pieces in isolation wouldn’t do them justice. To read Volt is to read a master of not only the short story, but of the collection.”

BOOKSLUT

“Alan Heathcock’s bejewelled collection of short stories, Volt, has just been released by Graywolf. I haven’t been this enthusiastic about a book of stories in a while, and I want to — in a way — proclaim that enthusiasm, as much as possible…”

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RELIGIOUS HERALD

NEW WEST

“…Novelist Dan Chaon and Booklist compared Heathcock’s work to Cormac McCarthy’s, but Heathcock’s stories put me more in mind of the great Flannery O’Connor, sharing her fascination with human oddity and moral failings, her unsentimental examination of small town America, and her gift for mingling violence with black humor…”

THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

“Volt,” [Heathcock’s] extraordinary first book, is mired with murder and mayhem but laced with hints of humanity and hope… With precise, often gritty, language Heathcock delivers many dark surprises in these stories, all brilliantly told, in situations and settings that grab at the edges of our comfort yet make us nervously wish for more.”

THE BOSTON GLOBE

“…One after another, in their penetrating intensity, these fictions shoot an electric shock — of repulsion, of recognition — right through us, as promised by the title. We can’t read them without a shiver…”

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THE QUIVERING PEN

“…Heathcock worked ten years on these stories and the hard, lonely hours of the solitary writer at his keyboard have paid off as readers now hold one of the year’s best short story collections in their hands. Volt makes us think, makes us feel, and makes us believe in the power of short fiction once again…”

KANSAS CITY STAR

“Before dedicating himself to writing, Alan Heathcock considered a life working as a police officer or a minister. One profession doles out justice, the other forgiveness. With “Volt,” his first book, he has found a way to deliver both. “Volt” is a collection of eight short stories that Heathcock has spent the last decade crafting. Each piece takes place in the fictional town of Krafton, set somewhere in rural America. It would be easy to call these stories dark because of the heavy themes of death and despair, but there’s far more going on than bleakness. What’s at stake is the notion that we can deal with grief and sorrow and yet maintain a life of purpose and hope…”

BOOKLIST

“…what really distinguishes the collection is the lyricism of the prose. Heathcock displays a real talent for describing a character in a telling phrase and shows a deep appreciation of the petty and serious violence of daily life. Recommend Volt to fans of Cormac McCarthy, Larry Brown, and Tom Franklin.”

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NORTHWEST BOOK LOVERS

“I read the first story on a dreary Saturday afternoon and felt it wrapping itself around me. The story’s shape kept evolving until the ending left me breathless and wanting to hold on to that moment. This collection of short stories is darkly beautiful and works together like an exquisite gallery show where each piece connects to the ones surrounding it creating a remarkable new whole.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Raw and rugged, the stories in Heathcock’s collection push up against the sharp edge of a world where people live and die, and find any redemption hard-won and sometimes bittersweet… Heathcock has earned a National Magazine Award for his fiction. This book affirms that promise.”

TNBBC’S THE NEXT BIG BOOK BLOG

“…Reading Volt is almost like flipping through the family album, or reading a decades worth of back to back newspaper clippings from a single town. Each story cuts deeper and deeper into the wounds of Krafton and it’s residents. Each chapter pulls the skin back a little farther, exposing more of its core. Heathcock is a master...”